Printing using “ROLL” or “WEB” based printing presses, typically involves the unwinding of a roll of printable material on the input side of a printing press and the rewinding of the printed material on the output side of the press. Modern printing presses use many methods of printing. Digital printing presses, for example, may use one or more cylinders with each cylinder representing a color, one or more toner cartridges with each cartridge representing a color, one or more ink cartridges with each ink cartridge representing a color or any other method of applying one or more colors to the printable material. These presses may apply the colors to the printable material at one time or one color at a time. For example, most print jobs run as four color or “PROCESS COLOR” print jobs using “CMYK” (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black) colors. Each cylinder, traditionally is wrapped with a “plate” that represents a single color of the art work. These plates, when merged and unwrapped represent a single frame. The frame dimension is usually decided based on the most number of labels that can fit on the cylinder.
With the advent of digital printing these plates or cylinders can take different forms. For example some digital presses use a laser to write an image to a cylinder and that cylinder creates a temporary image that picks up one to many colors and transfers them onto the printed material. Other examples are similar to a photo copier or a laser printer or an inkjet printer, and in these examples the material (as it passes by the writing heads) receives the individual colors as toner, or ink, or any similar method of transferring individual colors to the material.
In one example, and with reference to FIG. 1, a cylinder 110 may be configured, i.e., wrapped, with a “plate” that prints one frame 120 of labels 130. The length of the cylinder is known as the “web,” or “across the web.” Thus, the width 140 of frame 120 may be about the same as the web or length of the cylinder. The direction around the cylinder is known as “with the web.” Thus, the length 150 of frame 120 may be about the same length as the circumference around cylinder 110.
By way of example, a label 130 may be 1.875 inches high and 4.5 inches wide, and a frame may have a width 140 of 11.625 inches and a length 150 of 17 inches. Accounting for space between the labels, in this example, the maximum labels across the width may be five and the maximum labels along the length of the frame may be three. Thus, in this example, a maximum of fifteen labels may be printed per frame. Thus, in this embodiment, label orders may be in multiples of 15. In the event that an order requests 1 to 14 labels less than an even multiple of 15, there will be wasted labels.
Moreover, typically, all of the labels in one frame are similar to each other (size and artwork). In a further example, and with reference to FIG. 2, a print house may receive an order for five different types of labels that are the same size, but each with different artwork. The order may be for 1000 labels of type 1, 1100 labels of type 2, 1200 labels of type 3, 1250 labels of type 4, and 1300 labels of type 5. Typically a separate plate is created for each type of label, and each frame printed will contain the art for one type of label. On a large roll of label printable material, the print jobs for these five types may then be run sequentially—printing type 1, then type 2, and so forth until all five types have been printed.
Assuming that for all five label types, fifteen labels can be printed per frame, when printed in this manner, it is noted that it takes 67 frames to print 1005 labels to fill the order for type 1 labels. This is an overage of five labels. Similarly, 74 frames prints 1110 labels (10 over), 80 frames to print 1200 labels (exact), 84 frames to print 1260 labels (10 over), and 87 frames to print 1305 labels (five over). Printed in this manner, the total print job comprises 392 frames and results in filling the order with thirty extra (or wasted) labels. It is fairly common for print houses to charge their clients as much as 10% overage for such wasted labels. This is undesirable.
Disclosed herein are systems and methods for printing labels more efficiently, with greater flexibility, less expensively, and with the ability to provide further information than is currently possible.